Grandma's potato salad is always a real treat--everyone adores it. When I decided to attempt her recipe with a keto twist, I was a little worried that I’d create something that didn’t quite live up to the creamy, rich, lick-the-bowl-clean expectations of her dish. I’m happy to announce that my mission to develop a copycat version of her potato salad without the carbs was a success thanks to the good ol’ turnip! Keto potato salad was a huge hit in our house!
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Keto Potato Salad
If you like potato salad, you have got to try this keto friendly version. You will love, love, love turnip potato salad. Even grandma gave it thumbs up! With only four net carbs per serving, this side dish will comfortably fit into your keto diet. This recipe is a keeper.
Can I use turnips in place of potatoes?
Turnips make a great low carb keto potato substitute. For comparison, 100 grams of potato contains 9.44 grams of net carbohydrates while the turnip has only 4.63g net carbs for the same amount. That's less than half the carbs! For the folks who really miss potatoes, this can be a total game changer for a low carb dieter. Careful though, carbs tend to add up quickly so be sure to keep an eye on your serving size if you're trying to stay in ketosis.
The texture of a turnip is quite similar to that of a potato, so you get an almost identical mouthfeel while enjoying your meal. The taste isn't too far off either, but it's practically impossible to tell the difference mixed into this low carb potato salad.
If you're interested in seeing where this stacks up compared to other low carb vegetables, be sure to check out the searchable, sortable keto vegetable list.
The keto potato salad recipe
To prepare the turnip, give them a good scrub under water and cut each end off with a sharp knife
. Peel the outer skin off and chop into medium size chunks. You can choose to either boil or steam your turnip chunks to cook them thoroughly. It takes about 20 minutes to do either one. You want them to be tender, not mushy, so don’t overdo it.
If you’re on a low carb diet, there’s a good chance you’ll already have hardboiled eggs in your fridge. They make such a great snack, right?
If you don’t have any on hand, now would be a good time to boil your eggs. I almost always use a pressure cooker
for this step (6 minutes on high), but a good cook on a hardboiled egg on the stovetop will take 12-15 minutes after the water has boiled. Plenty of time to prepare while your turnips are cooking.
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I should warn you that turnips retain much more water than potatoes, so you will want to strain them well and even blot on a paper towel to remove the excess fluid. If you don’t, they will leach excess water into your salad after sitting, and you will end up with a watery keto potato salad instead of a decadent, creamy one. Don’t skip this step!
Let your turnips cool while they drain and dry. I just let them sit out on the counter on a paper towel, but you could quickly pop them into the fridge if you were in a hurry. While you wait for the turnips to be ready, you can gather and prep the rest of the ingredients: 1 dill pickle, four tablespoons mayo, two teaspoons mustard, one teaspoon pickle juice and salt & pepper to taste.
Coarsely chop your hardboiled eggs, mince your dill pickle, and combine all the condiments in a large bowl. Stir it up until you have a smooth sauce, then add in the turnips. Mix everything thoroughly to coat the turnips evenly. Give it a taste and add salt & pepper to your preference. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until you are ready to serve your delicious turnip fauxtato salad.
I hope you enjoy the keto potato salad! If you love it or have any tweaks or suggestions for other readers, please be sure to leave a comment and rating for the recipe below!
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 turnips chopped
- 2 eggs hardboiled
- 1 dill pickle minced
- 4 tbsp Mayonnaise
- 2 tsp Mustard
- 1 tsp Pickle Juice
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Boil two pots of water.
- Wash and peel turnips. Chop into medium size chunks.
- Place turnip pieces into one pot of boiling water for 20 minutes.
- In the other pot of water, hardboil 2 eggs for 12 minutes.
- Remove eggs from water, place in cool water or ice bath.
- Strain turnips and rinse with cool water to stop them from overcooking.
- Place turnips on paper towels to drain excess fluid and allow cooling.
- Coarsely chop hardboiled eggs.
- Mince dill pickle.
- Combine mayo, mustard, pickle juice, chopped eggs and minced pickle in a large bowl. Stir until a smooth sauce is formed.
- Add cooled turnips to the sauce and mix until even coated.
- Cover in plastic wrap and chill until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Try it out and let me know what you think in the comments below! What are your personal favorite low carb and keto side dishes?
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Hi, I'm Tasha–nutritionist, recipe developer, and multi-published cookbook author.
Hi there tried this recipe, I enjoyed it! My kids didn't mind, my hubby didn't really care for it. I didnt add the mustard, as they all don't like mustard, but I added it to my own. It was just the right consistency. I used a 16 oz bag of pre-cut turnip, 3 eggs. I recommend to others. Just have to play with seasoning to taste.
I make this regularly now. I love it. I add capers and dill to mine, and leave the skins on, but it's great as is! Filling and tasty, and only about 60 calories per serving.
Tasha, This fauxtato salad is freakin amazing! I could only find rutabega so if anyone asks, the 'potatoes' are yukon golds. They were a touch firm but I've certainly had way crunchier potato salad at potluck dinners. I might try cooking them a bit longer but not much. I also added 1/2 chopped onion because Gramma always put onion in hers. If I didn't know it wasn't potato I don't think I would have guessed. Quick question do you salt your boiling water?
Thanks for the great recipe.
Val
Hey Val! So glad you liked this recipe! I'm 50/50 on salting my water -- I do it, but not all the time. 🙂
Has anyone tried this using a pressure cooker instead of boiling the turnips?
Delicious! I roasted my turnips. It intensifies the flavor & abates the water/texture issue of the turnip. I'm stumbling blindly along to start ketogenic eating. Thanks for this! ♡
Great tip! That's such a smart idea! I'll have to try this next time 🙂
At what temp and for how long did you cook your turnips?
You wrote: 100 grams of potato contains 9.44 grams of net carbohydrates while the turnip has only 4.63g net carbs????
Potatos has a loooot more than that, any way it is a good recipe.
Thanks for the recipe
I just tried making this, but it came out so bitter. Is there a trick to making the turnips not bitter? I want to give this recipe another try. Thanks!
There is a line of turnip flesh just under the skin that holds most of the bitterness. I would try to peel the turnips a little further down. This will be a larger line on a larger turnip. I hope this helps!
what is the serving size?
Holy Turnip!!! This is sooo good. I was very diligent in my dicing of uniform bite-sized pieces, and took the time to lay out the turnip to dry after boiling. I also added onion and celery as I love the crunch, but it truly might fool someone as the texture is amazing. I also just stirred after hours in the fridge and added a bit more salt and pepper, and a teaspoon more mustard (as I like that to be dominant). Make this, it's delicious!
Made this today for a bbq. I didn’t tell anyone that it wasn’t real potato salad. Everyone at it and said it was good and were shocked when I said it was turnips. Had a bitter after taste but I think if I added some pickle and maybe some more mustard. I cooked the turnips in the oven and had no issues with water. Next time I might season the turnips before I cook them to try to cut back on the bitter after taste.
If you cook the turnips in chicken broth instead of water, this will; help to alleviate the bitterness and add a nice flavor to the turnips!!
That came out so nice and curbed that potato salad craving.
The voice of dissent:
We didn't care for this recipe. The first day I made it, we thought it was too bland and tasteless. But I thought perhaps it just needed a little time for the flavors to develop. So, a couple of days later, I tried eating it again. Still bland. So, I started doctoring it up: I added salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, dehydrated red onion, cayenne pepper, yellow mustard, another diced dill pickle... then more S&P, onion powder, garlic powder... It didn't matter what or how much I added to (hopefully) create some flavor, it remained totally blah. The only thing I could think of to improve the flavor would be to boil the turnips in heavily-salted water (I had used a little salt in my water, but clearly not enough). However, we feel that even doing this wouldn't be enough. This recipe is not a "keeper" for us. It's a great idea that didn't pan out.